Forum:Signature policy
In a nutshell: A signature should clearly indicate who the user is, and should contain a link to the user's userpage. Images and line breaks are not permitted in signatures. Signing your comments on talk and discussion pages is considered good etiquette, serving to identify the author of a comment. To this end, it is important to sign your comments with a signature that is both recognizable and non-disruptive. When to use signatures Any post to User talk, Article talk, or other discussion page should be signed. Article contributions should not be signed. More specifically you should sign your comments on all namespaces and also on ns:110. How to sign a comment Signing your comments is easy: simply type four tildes (~~~~) after your post (do not reply with three tildes as this will result in a missing time stamp). This will automatically translate into your signature when you save the page. Alternately, you can click the "signature button" on the editing toolbar (just above the editing window). In both cases, the result is the same. Dealing with unsigned comments When running across a comment that hasn't been signed, any user can add attribution using . Simply check the article's history to see who originally posted the comment, then type after the comment in question (make sure you put the username of the user who made the comment in the template, not your own). If you forget to sign your own comment and don't notice the error until later, do not sign your comment late; this will result in an incorrect timestamp. If nobody else has added the correct attribution yet, you can mark the comment yourself using , as outlined above. Customize your signature By default, a user's signature will link back to their user page and user talk page. If a user desires, the signature can be customized, but it is required that you keep within the following guidelines and common sense when customizing your signature. Signature guidelines * Signatures cannot contain external links ( ). :Signatures should be text-only when rendered (viewed on the page); images are disallowed, due to the slow load times they can cause on talk pages, and the server stress it can cause occasionally. :External links are also disallowed, as this is viewed as a form of advertising; exceptions to the rule are interwiki links or link templates. (If the link uses brackets or no brackets at all, it's an external link. Keep this sort of stuff on your userpage.) * Signatures should not exceed 80 characters on-screen when rendered. :Keep the signature short and simple; if the length isn't within a reasonable size, this can cause a signature to be needlessly distracting. * No line breaks. :Do not use tags or linebreaks within the signature, as this will cause the signature to take up multiple lines of text on a page. * The font size of the signature should be no larger than the font size of normal text. :Do not use or tags to increase the text size of the signature. This will disrupt line spacing. Use common sense; if the end result of your code makes the signature taller then the rest of the text on the page, it's probably something you should avoid. * ' and tags are limited to one at a time.' :Multiple instances of superscript or subscript will extend the text above or below the text line, disrupting line spacing. A single instance of superscript or subscript is acceptable, however. * A link to the user page is required, and a link to the user talk page is recommended. :Make sure that your signature at least links back to your own user page; a link to your user talk page also makes it simpler for other users to contact you, although it isn't required. Your signature may contain other links as well, but exercise common sense when adding links. * Signatures must reflect a user's actual username, in part or in whole. :If other users can't tell who they're talking to even after reading your signature, then your signature isn't doing its job. Generally, this rule is flexible; shortened versions of your current username make good signatures, or slightly modified (with special characters and such). But please, exercise restraint on this aspect; "Super-Naruto" is not going to cut it as a shortened version of "User:Joe". :Use foreign character sets sparingly as well, unless your actual username is also in a foreign language. If you must use a character set for your username, take special care that it translates to your actual username, and avoid changing it too often (as this will cause unnecessary confusion). Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in a warning to change your signature; deliberately refusing to adhere may result in a ban. How to customize your signature You can customise your signature in under "Signature" in "My Info" tab. You can create a custom signature by checking the "Custom signature" box, and entering the MediaWiki code for your new signature in the "Custom Signature" field.